This invention relates to the field of message handling, and more specifically to the field of message presentation to a user by which messages of all types are consolidated and graphically displayed in a searchable list to allow for easy graphical scanning, prioritizing, editing, selection, viewing, forwarding, playback, and response by the user.
Traditionally, a user could retrieve only voice messages by calling and interacting with a voice mail service using dual tone multi-frequency (DTMF) commands. Such retrieval of messages, however, required the user to dial the voice mail service and listen to each message, or minimally the header of each message, that is, the name of the person and the time received. This type of voice mail retrieval tended to be a slow and tedious process.
Additionally, the user needed to memorize the DTMF number commands to control the voice mail service. Sometimes these commands were different for the user's home voice mail service and the user's office voice mail service. For example, the user needed to remember that pressing "1" with the office voice mail service, while pressing "6" with the home voice mail service, meant "play the message."
More recently, telephones have been designed with the capability to directly receive, or download, different types of messages, such as faxes, e-mail, and Short Messaging Service (SMS) messages. One conventional mobile telephone has a display, a keypad, and numerous hard keys, and uses menus to enable a user to view different types of received messages.
When a message arrives, an internal processor detects the message type and stores the message in a folder dedicated to the message type. If the telephone receives a fax, for example, the internal processor stores the fax in a fax folder.
When the user opens the cover to the display, the internal processor displays a note indicating the quantity and type of messages received. For example, if two faxes and two SMS messages have been received, the note will show "You have: 2 unread faxes and 2 unread short messages."
If the user wants to view a received message, the user first goes to the main menu and selects the type of message to view. This causes the internal processor to launch a message-type specific application to retrieve the message from the message folder and display it for the user. For example, if the user wants to read a received fax, the user selects "Received faxes" from the main menu. In response, the internal processor launches the fax application to display a list of received faxes. From the list, the user selects a particular fax to read. The fax application then displays the selected fax.
If the user then wanted to view a received SMS message, however, the user must return to the main menu to select "Received short messages." In response, the internal processor launches the SMS application to display a list of received SMS messages from which the user selects the desired one.
Telephones of this type, however, suffer from a number of drawbacks. First, they store in their internal memory all received messages, except voice and e-mail messages which are stored at an external server. This wastes precious memory space, and as a result, fewer messages can be locally stored.
Additionally, message handling is cumbersome because the telephones are menu driven and contain separate applications for the different message types. To view different types of messages, the user must follow a series of menus that cause specific applications to be executed.
Therefore, a need exists to integrate different types of messages from different types of equipment into one graphical location to notify the user of pending messages and their type, and to allow the user to view and respond to the messages by simple operation.